Consumer backlash over wooden cutlery

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Consumer backlash over wooden cutlery Consumers are staging a backlash against disposable wooden cutlery after sandwich chains have started handing them out instead of plastic versions.natural bamboo sushi tray boatThe UK's most popular food outlet, Pret, has ditched wooden forks just weeks after introducing them after customers complained the spoons were not deep enough to eat soup with. Pret trialed replacing plastic cutlery with wooden in a bid to reduce the amount of waste it produces and please its increasingly environmentally aware customer base. Instead Pret said it would now trial moving cutlery behind the counter in a bid to reduce the amount of single use plastics being used by customers. It comes as a raft of food companies including Pret have committed to eliminating single use plastics from their products in order to protect the environment. This summer M&S will also replace plastic knives and forks with wooden ones in stores in an attempt to become more environmentally friendly. Pret admitted its trial to replace plastic cutlery with wooden had "fallen flat". A Pret spokesman said: "First we trialled wooden cutlery, and you told us it just wasn’t up to scratch. The good news is we will introduce compostable cutlery to all our UK shops next year. In the meantime, we are testing keeping cutlery behind our tills to see if this also makes a difference." Customers were unhappy with the new shape of its wooden spoons, which they said were difficult to eat yoghurts and soups with. One said: "Just had my porridge at Pret. I'm all for saving the planet, but what is it with the spoons. They appear to have just added to the 'spork' family with a 'spive' or is it a 'koon'?" Another said: "A very admirable move towards wooden spoons from plastic, but your new spoon is too small to eat soup with! Soup spoons please." Meanwhile others argued that wooden spoons were also bad for the environment as they come from cutting down trees. Another customer said: "Did anyone think from where is coming the wood? It means more fallen trees in the planet. It will also be an issue." Wooden forks have also been introduced at a number of other food outlets, leaving some consumers less than impressed. A number have taken to social media to complain about the rough texture of wooden knives, forks and spoons, complaining of the "cringey" feel in their mouth.